Intranets are internal corporate networks that take advantage of Internet technologies and protocols, such as the World Wide Web.

The main attraction of such technology is that companies can present information and resources to employees and customers in the form of Web documents, for example, and have users access the server, using a Web browser, no matter what their hardware platform.

According to Oracle, InterOffice uses Internet standards (such as hypertext markup language) and Web interfaces to provide corporate intranets with e-mail, scheduling, workflow, and document management services.

Compuserve's Network Services Division said it will offer corporate customers an "end-to-end managed, InterOffice-based application hosting service" during the third quarter. The company says the service will allow a corporate customers' end-users to locally dial into Compuserve's secure network, connect to a server within Compuserve's data centers, and access the user's company data inside an Oracle InterOffice database.

InterOffice can support thousands of simultaneous users on a single server, according to the companies.

In related news, Network Computer Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle, says that Oracle InterOffice will be the first shipping application designed for the NC (network computer). The NC will access applications residing on a server, rather than have them on a local drive, as with a standard PC.

According to Network Computer Inc., the NC will serve as a "fully functioning client of the InterOffice server by taking advantage of its HTML interface."

The NC user accesses the server to obtain information. According to the company, "because the application is network-centric, no software resides locally on the NC, thereby eliminating client administration and maintenance costs."

Network Computer Inc. will reportedly develop, license, and market all necessary software and support services for the NC, including the newly announced Oracle NC System Software Suite and other NC applications.

Just a week ago, as reported by Newsbytes, Oracle outlined some of its intranet strategy, saying that "Oracle Web Request Broker application platform will interoperate with third-party Web servers from Netscape, Microsoft, and others." The Oracle Web Request Broker is software that runs on top of third-party HTTP servers. Unfortunately, the only way to obtain the Oracle Web request Broker, at least for the near future, is to first buy Oracle WebServer, version 2.0 of which is priced starting at around $2,500.

At the time, the company said a version of the Oracle Web Request Broker that integrates with Netscape's Enterprise Server is scheduled to ship to customers this summer, with a version for Microsoft Internet Information Server scheduled to ship later this year.

Last month Newsbytes reported on Oracle's teaming with major computing firms to release a "jointly developed NC reference platform." The companies included IBM, Sun, Apple, and Netscape.

At the time, Oracle announced its new Network Computer Inc. subsidiary and said a commercial implementation of the reference platform had been licensed by 30 hardware and software vendors.

(Ian Stokell/19960620/Press Contact: Randy Brasche, Oracle Corp., 415-506-3074; Andy Boyer, Network Services, 614-723-1338, Internet e-mail aboyer@csi.compuserve.com)

(Martyn Williams/19960621)